Turkey withdrew gold from Fed amid crisis

Turkey’s central bank withdrew gold reserves it held at the U.S. Federal Reserve and placed them at the Bank of International Settlements and the Bank of England amid a political crisis with the United States, Hurriyet columnist Uğur Gurses said citing a central bank report.

The reserves totaled 28.6 tons, Gurses said in a column on Tuesday. Furthermore, banks in Turkey have increased their reserves with the central bank in gold rather than foreign currency, placing 38.3 tons at the bank of England and 63.8 tons in the central bank’s accounts at the Istanbul Stock Exchange.

The purchases and movements of the gold, which resulted in a $4.2 billion increase in the central bank’s gold reserves, are numerical and do not explain the physical imports of gold into Turkey, which totaled $9.9 billion last year and contributed to the country’s widening current account deficit, Gurses said.